


More Than Prince of Cats

by Ambrose



Series: Dare to Write Challenge [26]
Category: Romeo And Juliet - All Media Types, Romeo And Juliet - Shakespeare
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-12
Updated: 2016-11-12
Packaged: 2018-08-30 14:31:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8536783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ambrose/pseuds/Ambrose
Summary: Tybalt doesn't like black cats. Or rather, black cats don't like him.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [delectxre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/delectxre/gifts).



"But why don't you like cats?!"

Tybalt remembered having this conversation with Benvolio right at the beginning of their relationship, when he made it a condition of it that Mercutio would stop with the cat names.

"I do like them, actually. Except the black ones, I don't know why. Maybe it's because we had one when I was a kid, and I stepped on his tail because I couldn't see it in the dark, and from then he hated me." Tybalt had winced. "I tried to make peace with him, but it never worked. And now I feel like every black cat has to continue his legacy. They hate me! What can I do! But no, I don't hate cats, I just don't like Mercutio's silly habit of giving me pet names."

"You're going to have the hardest time preventing him from finding you new ones!" Benvolio had grinned. 

Tybalt had forgotten that conversation, until one morning when he woke up to a shrill cry that certainly did not belong to a human, and straightened up to see Mercutio staring at him from the foot of the bed. Tybalt would have been excited by his calculating look on any other day, but right then he was more preoccupied by the noisy box Mercutio was holding. It looked strangely ominous. Especially when he noticed Benvolio leaning against the doorway, looking at them smiling.

"What... Is that? What's going on?" he asked, rubbing at his eyes. He was now entirely awake. 

"See for yourself!" Mercutio handed him the box oh-so-gently, and Tybalt started to suspect there was a living creature in there instead of a bomb. 

"Does it bite?" he wondered, his hand hovering over the cardboard box's closed lid. Small holes had been made to allow whatever was inside to breathe. It was crying out to be freed, and it pained Tybalt to hear.

"Not if you're nice," Mercutio grinned at him.

Tybalt decided it was safe to open the box. Benvolio would have been much more panicked if it weren't. 

"What the fuck?" He couldn't help exclaiming when he found out there was not one, but three, black kittens at the bottom. "You know I hate black cats! Black cats hate me!"

"Calm down, they're _babies_ , they can't hurt you! Aren't you the one to always tell me how stupid it is I'm scared of spiders because i'm about a thousand times as big? Well, there you go."

Tybalt was not going to let himself be tricked by his own rhetoric. "Kittens have the sharpest teeth!" he grumbled.

"You'd know about that," Mercutio let out before raising his hands. "Alright, alright, no King of Cats jokes, I know!"

"Juliet called earlier," Benvolio came forward to explain, and sat on the edge of the bed. "They found a dead cat in front of their house this morning, you know how fast the drivers go there... Anyways, they could hear the babies crying, and they're gonna die if we leave them out there... But their landlord is furiously against cats so... We had to take them in."

"And since you're the first of us they really see, you're their mother now! They can't be mean with you!"

Tybalt sighed, but he couldn't help smiling at Mercutio's antics. "They're not ducklings, they're kittens," he said as he approached a tentative finger to pet one of the kittens, who were trying to climb out of the box. They looked to be hardly over a month old... They'd need nursing, probably. 

That's when Mercutio started with the puppy eyes. "Alright, we can keep them! I'm not going to let them die! But I've warned you, they're going to hate me, whatever I do..."

But when he picked up one of them, it soon snuggled against him and started purring, and Tybalt thought it might be worth another try. 


End file.
